All Hands On Deck: How To Provide Consistent, Quality Hand Hygiene For All

The Tork brand’s Paper Towel Plea highlighted the stories of people facing hand hygiene barriers on paper hand towels, bringing awareness to the often-invisible challenges that many different groups face to inclusive hand hygiene. (Photo courtesy of Tork)

By Raquel Carbonari, Brand Activation Director, Professional Hygiene – North America at Essity

What’s something you do every day, multiple times per day? Depending on who you ask, there are many possible answers to that question, but for hygiene’s sake, hopefully one of them is washing your hands. It can be easy to take for granted, but hand hygiene is a critical need and human right. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says proper hand hygiene is one of the best ways to keep communities safe and the best way to get rid of germs in most situations.[1] And each spring, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes World Hand Hygiene Day on May 5 to raise awareness of the need for quality education about, and access to, hand hygiene.[2]

In addition to being a basic need, hand hygiene is critical for business success — recent research by Tork found 60% of people have a lesser opinion of businesses or venues whose hand hygiene facilities are challenging to use.[3]  Ensuring that customers can practice quality hand hygiene in facilities that are easy to navigate can help reduce complaints, save time and resources, and contribute to higher customer satisfaction.

Despite its importance, there are numerous barriers to proper hand hygiene — often invisible — that prevent certain groups of people from achieving it. Almost one-third of Americans continue to face barriers when it comes to handwashing in public restrooms, and around 1 in 5 Americans experience difficulties using soap or hand towel dispensers due to an injury, health condition, physical capability or as a parent with a child.[4]

For facility managers and business leaders, these statistics may be shocking, especially considering many of these challenges are often invisible and unknown to decision makers who can implement change. What’s more, these experiences impact business reputation and revenue. For example, in a stadium or entertainment venue, guests may avoid purchasing food and drink, so they don’t need to use the restroom. In the workplace, poor experiences lead to complaints from employees, with 45% of total building complaints being related to the restroom — more than any other aspect of the workplace.[5] For all types of businesses, long lines for the restroom, empty soap and paper towel dispensers, and unclean, high-traffic areas throughout facility restrooms can ultimately impact guests’ willingness to return.

Raquel Carbonari

Every person deserves proper hand hygiene, and providing the right facility amenities and products can make a significant difference. Businesses consider a variety of factors when assessing their hand hygiene facilities — here are some tips for promoting hand hygiene inclusivity and providing the highest-quality facilities for customer satisfaction and business performance.

• Assess the products in your facility’s restrooms: Simply starting with an audit of the products that your facility currently provides can indicate where the problem areas for hand hygiene might be. For example, do you offer air dryers, paper towels, or both? As air dryers can spread 10 times more bacteria,[6] there are benefits to switching to paper hand towels which are a more inclusive option. Paper towels service more guests at a time and can be used for multiple functions, such as cleaning surfaces and helping guests avoid touching faucets and door handles. Moreover, for children and guests who are neurodivergent, which can cause increased sensitivity to loud noises, paper hand towels provide an overall quieter, less stimulating, and more pleasant restroom experience.
• Provide gentle, effective products: Providing soaps and sanitizers that are gentle and effective is another way to promote inclusive hand hygiene. In the United States alone, more than 31 million people suffer from eczema and may find that some hand soaps irritate their skin.[7] Other conditions can also cause customers to be sensitive to ingredients or fragrances. Ensure the hand soap you provide is gentle, kind to skin, and dermatologically tested. When selecting a product, look for certifications from organizations like the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF).
• Install dispensers that are easy to use for people with reduced hand function: When considering products for your facility, think about the whole chain of products, not just the final soap, sanitizer, or towel that is in contact with a customer. It is important to make sure you install dispensers that are easy to use for people with a range of mobility needs. Abilities change for a variety of reasons, which can make using buttons, handles, or faucets in public restrooms more challenging. Make sure your dispensers allow guests to pull items easily with just one hand. Committing to inclusive hygiene means making it accessible for everyone, across all products and processes.
• Ensure frequent cleaning of restrooms: For guests who are hypersensitive to cleanliness, an unclean restroom can lead to complaints or avoiding restroom use altogether. For example, a person with contamination OCD may avoid public restrooms, which limits the types of places they visit. For everyone’s health and safety, committing to regular, thorough cleaning processes ensures consistent customer satisfaction and equal hygiene for all. Using data-driven insights from connected dispensers, facility teams can keep track of foot traffic and capacity and leverage this real-time data to identify when and where there are service/cleaning needs in a facility immediately. With these insights, cleaning teams are focused on tasks that matter most, and facilities can provide cleaner, more hygienic restrooms that are friendlier to everyone.

Facility operators and managers can play a direct role in providing inclusive hygiene for all by making hand hygiene facilities more accessible. Focusing on each product and step in the cleaning and hygiene process can contribute not only to everyone’s safety, but also to customer satisfaction and business performance.

In its efforts to advance hygiene inclusivity in public restrooms, Tork is taking a journey to engage business leaders and change agents in a range of capacities — from research and training to concepting and development — to create more inclusive restroom designs and facilities. To learn more about and follow Tork to advancing hygiene inclusivity in public restrooms, visit https://www.torkusa.com/about-us/paper-towel-plea.

The Tork brand offers professional hygiene products and services to customers worldwide, ranging from restaurants and healthcare facilities to offices, schools and industries. Our products include dispensers, paper towels, toilet tissue, soap, hand sanitizers, napkins, wipers, but also software solutions for data-driven cleaning. Through expertise in hygiene, functional design and sustainability, Tork has become a market leader that empowers customers to think ahead and improve business outcomes through sustainable hygiene management. Tork is a global brand of Essity, and a committed partner to customers in over 110 countries. To keep up with the latest Tork news and innovations, please visit: www.torkusa.com.

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “About Handwashing,” February 16, 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/clean-hands/about/index.html.

2 World Health Organization, World Hand Hygiene Day, https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day.

3 Market research survey conducted in North America and Europe with offices, 2022.

4 Survey among nationally representative group, barriers faced personally or in assisting others, 2024.

5 Statista: average across 2017 to 2021, 185 respondents North America, building service contractors and commercial cleaning provider.

6 Best et al, J Hosp Infection, 2014.

7 National Eczema Association, “Eczema Prevalence, Quality of Life and Economic Impact,” https://nationaleczema.org/research/eczema-facts/.